#fihrie!nyx

[ertrunkenerwassergeist]

Saw this writing prompt, and it made me wonder if there's a tooth fairy legend about either the fae or fihrie, and what the Galahdians vs Lucians would think of it

When Selena loses her first milk tooth, the first thing she does is to show it to her brother. She is excited. Losing her first milk tooth will mean learning how to make tea, learning how to hunt and all the other secret things the older children whisper about.

She shows her fallen out tooth to Nyx, her smile showing off the gap left behind, and his first reaction is not excitement like she has expected, but abject horror.

He closes his bedroom door in her face - it nearly hits her nose and actually cracks against her knuckles - before he starts screaming at her to go away and hide the tooth where he will never find it.

Selena does not listen. Instead she does what every nearly six year old would do and starts to cry, running for her mother.

Alyxa Utris had known this would happen one day. She had still thought she would have more time to actually find the words to explain this to her daughter, but it seems like time has run out. So she does her best to console her daughter and when her tears are dry, Alyxa takes Selena into the kitchen and makes her daughter's favourite sweet tea.

"Is it really so bad?" her daughter asks, hiccuping, staring at the tiny tooth on the wooden table top.

Alyxa sighs, scoots her chair as close to Selena's as she can and wraps an arm around her daughter. "It's a sign of getting older, si lehwiga. It's as much a cause for celebration as it is for grief. You leave something behind to gain something new."

"But why was Nyx so mean?"

"You know how your brother is different?" Alyxa asks slowly, carefully.

Selena looks like she has to seriously think about it. "He already has a Name."

That startles a laugh out of Alyxa. "Oh, that's not what I mean, si lehwiga."

"What then?"

"You know how he sometimes turns into a coeurl? Not everyone can do that. And it comes with a very special set of rules your brother has to follow."

"Oh," Selena says like it is an entirely new concept to her that not everyone has an older brother than can turn into an animal their little sisters can cuddle. "Is there a rule that says he's got to be upset about my tooth?"

"No, not that. But if he manages to find and keep it, you will owe him five years and ten months of your life. That scares him."

"Brother isn't scared of anything!" Selena exclaimes entirely scandalised at the very thought. "And he can have my years. Maybe then he'll teach me how to make tea."

Alyxa does her best to keep her panic from her expression and voice. "Selena no! Nyx'll teach you how to make tea without you having to give him your years. He just won't be able to be there until we burn your tooth later tonight."

"Oh," Selena says again. "But I can give him a hug later, right?"

"After we burnt the tooth and spread the ashes, yes, you can," Alyxa says, relieved that a bigger crisis has been averted.

After all of this is done, she thinks she will make that hare stew Nyx likes so much. It can't be easy for her poor boy. On days like these she silently curses the fihrie blood of the Ulric Clan.

.

When Iris loses her first milk tooth, the first thing she does is to show it to her brother. She is excited. Now she has her very own favour to give, should she ever need the help of a fae.

Gladdy looks at it with all the seriousness the situation deserves and guides her into the living room. There, in the display cabinet next to one of the large windows, are three small handcarved wooden cases. Two of them, Iris knows, are already filled with milk teeth. One belongs to her father, the other to her brother. The last one, depicting beautiful iris flowers, is for her. It had been a present from King Regis for her brith.

"You know what to do?" Galddy asks.

Iris rolls her eyes. Of course she does! She's six and a half, not three.

Gladdy opens the cabinet for her and she picks up her wooden case. She carefully opens it and as she gently settles her tooth inside, she recites: "A favour for the future, for the fae of this house. I'll keep it safe until it's needed."

Iris looks at her brother, expectant. Gladdy nods and with an excited bounce the girl sets the wooden case back into the cabinet.

"Did you ever give away one of your teeth?" Iris wants to know.

"I gave one to Cor when I was seven," Gladdy admits with a grimace.

"What favour did you ask for?"

"I really wanted ice cream and dad had said no. Dad was furious when he found out about it."

Iris nods seriously. Silly brother. She would save hers up for something important. Like hot chocolate.

[ertrunkenerwassergeist]

How about 5 headcanons in the Fae CorNyx au, please? Thank you!

A Bloody Heart Makes Mine Grow Fonder!

Ha, I love that one (and really need to work more on it). Let's see...

1) You remember that old ladies' knitting circle Nyx and Cor barged into on accident? Let's just say Cor just got a whole group of mums. And they won't leave him alone.

Cor would never admit it, but he kinda liked being sat down on the regular with being plied with tea and cookies. He learns so many interesting things! All the good gossip! When they aren't talking about old man Brutus and his dastardly manners again that is. Or are trying to give him totally outdated dating advice.

Margret is convinced going to operas and plays is The Thing to do. Silvie liked to disagree and thinks long walks along the lakes and river in Insomnia are the way to go. There are Discussions going on.

Cor does not have the heart to tell them to stop. They're so excited about this. And for him.

2) Nyx very carefully cleans the spine Cor got him and displays it prominently at his apartment. The moment a visitor looks at it for half a second too long, he will tell the story of how he got it. (No matter if that person already knows that story.)

Including many compliments about Cor.

3) Said compliments are part of fihrie courting tradition. You give praise about your prospective life companion to the fihrie around you. Basically you get all the bragging right. And the more annoyed the fihrie around you are without them being able to do anything about it, the more you show your appreciation.

After all, if you can't actually gift things because of the Laws, you have to show your acceptance in other ways.

So if a fihrie starts to throw out compliments wihtout prompting, you know things are Serious.

Other courting aspects include: teasing your interest until you ent up playfighting, following the other one around, showing up in the middle of the night for company and listening to the sea together.

4) The Mürn does not like Cor. Mostly because he dared to catch Nyx' attention.

She totally had a Thing for The Ulric before he chose to join the Wild Hunt and was very Put Out when he went and married/joined with a human of all things.

For that reason she has a very... complicated relationship with the Line of Ulric.

She also can't stand The Rí. She's never met him, but a) he's fae and b) when she learns about his way of doing things, she thinks he's an abolute idiot.

5) The Rí likes Nyx and would very much like to keep him. But he knows Cor would throw a coup should that happen, so he doesn't.

(Isn't he nice?)

(He tries very hard not to think about the fact that Cor has a very good chance of succeeding in that coup, should he ever decide that's the way to go.)

The Rí thinks The Mürn is very Interesting, from what he hears from Cor. He would very much like to invite her to his fires and see if she'll melt from their warmth.